A drug addict who stabbed to death a disabled pensioner on his own doorstep has been jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years.

A drug addict who stabbed to death a disabled pensioner on his own doorstep has been jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 22 years.

William Stephen Jones, of Gold Street, Adamsdown, Cardiff, stabbed partially-sighted Peter Lewis, leaving him bleeding and begging for help outside his flat in the Roath area of the city. Jones was found guilty of murder on Friday.

The 32-year-old heroin addict, who had denied murdering the church-goer and charity volunteer last April, was handed a life sentence by Mr Justice Griffith Williams at Cardiff Crown Court.

Sentencing him to a life term on Monday morning, the judge told Jones - pictured left - he will not be considered for parole for at least 22 years.

Judge Williams told Jones, who worked as a carpet fitter to pay for drugs, that the contrast between his life and that of committed Christian Peter Lewis could not have been greater.

“You, at the age of 32 are a drug addict who is addicted to heroin and other drugs,” he told him.

“You are a man with little or no regard to your fellow man as both your behaviour on the night you murdered Peter Lewis and your criminal record demonstrate.

“Peter Lewis was a kind and generous man, who despite his intellectual and physical disabilities led a full life helping others as much as he could.

“While he became frustrated at times there was no malice in him and his anger was short lived.

“His murder was a cruel end to an affectionate life.”

During the trial a jury heard how Mr Lewis, 68, died on his own doorstep in Claude Road, Roath, Cardiff, after answering a ring on the bell in the early hours of April 28 last year.

They were told how Jones, who lived minutes away in Gold Street, Adamsdown, went out armed with a knife jealously looking for his on-off girlfriend, a local sex worker, and another man he thought she would be with.

He had knocked on other doors asking for them before trying at Mr Lewis’ property.

Jones claimed when Mr Lewis opened his door and immediately pointed and waved a knife at him. He said he grabbed his hand and the knife, pushing him backwards, and threw the knife into the back of a scrap lorry as he ran away. It was never found.

As he lay dying, Mr Lewis was recorded calling for help on the pendant alarm he wore around his neck, begging: “Help me, I’m bleeding, please hurry.”

Judge Williams said the fact Jones tried to blame vulnerable Mr Lewis for the incident was evidence that he was a “selfish and unfeeling young man who has no remorse whatsoever”.

He told him: “You went out armed with a knife prepared for confrontation and prepared to use the knife unlawfully. My belief was that your dispute was probably drug related but that is not relevant.

“The dispute was serious enough in your mind that you were prepared to wake up people on Claude Road in the small hours of the morning.

“You were indifferent to the inconvenience you were causing those people. While you had been taking drugs and had been drinking you knew full well what you were doing but that was no vindication for what happened that night.

“When you rang the door bell you waited for a long time for the door to be answered as Peter Lewis made his way slowly to the door.

“Even in your condition under the influence of drink and drugs it must have been readily apparent that he was an elderly diminutive and infirm man whose behaviour in no way amounted to provocation.

“Instead of apologising and moving on as you had done previously, you lost your temper and stabbed him, intending to cause him serious injury.

“You then ran off back to your flat and while you had no reason to believe you had killed him, you knew you had caused him serious injury but that did not concern you at all.”

Following Jones’ conviction, Mr Lewis’ family said they would pray for all those in the grip of drugs.

Mr Lewis' sister Anne Wood, speaking outside court on Friday, said: “We pray for the family of Will and for this great sadness.

“I take no joy in seeing a young man and his family ruined by heroin.

“It is a tragedy that heroin ruins lives and my heart goes out to those heading for this destructive route.

“The family of Will will be without him now for a number of years and we have lost Peter for life.”

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